Initially, Barbara took it bad. She did not want to see anybody, nor to talk about her feelings. She recluded herself in her flat and broke with Jason Bard, the man she was engaged to. She did not even want Nightwing around. Eventually, she decided not to give up her fight against crime and changed her identity to Oracle. As Oracle, she didn't physically fight crime, but used her information-gathering/hacking/computer skills to help Batman and the other heroes of Gotham.
The character Oracle was first established in Suicide Squad #23. It was in Suicide Squad #38 where we learn that Oracle is in actuality, a wheelchair bound Barbara Gordon. She uses her vast knowledge, her photographic memory, her computer, and a grant from the Wayne Foundation in order to provide assistance for a select few in the crime fighting community. Barbara, as Oracle went on to become the leader of the Birds of Prey. She takes under her wing Helena Kyle (Ashley Scott), the secret daughter of Batman and Catwoman, who quickly grows into the fierce and beautiful "Huntress," and Dinah (Rachel Skarsten), a teenage runaway who is drawn to the city by meta-human visions. With the help of the only honest cop in New Gotham, Detective Jesse Reese (Shemar Moore), the Birds of Prey fight their first battle against a mysterious madwoman (Sherilyn Fenn) who is bent on their destruction.
This is a no-holds-barred take on a truly insane criminal mind, masterfully written by British comics writer Alan Moore. The art by Brian Bolland is so appealing that his depiction of the Joker became a standard and was imitated by many artists to follow. The portrait of her staring in bemused horror at the Joker (standing in the hallway with Hawaiian shirt, camera, and revolver), while the scene turns "orange" in anticipation of bloodshed, one of the most memorable facial expressions ever rendered in a comic book.
In Blind Justice, Batman discovers a series of murders linked
to WayneTech and ends up in a wheelchair himself.
Stark is subsequently be shot by a jealous ex-lover (issues 242-243) and end up in a wheelchair. In following issues he spends more and more of the time in his cybernetically controlled armor, which allows him to walk. In issue 248 an experimental bio chip is implanted into his spinal cord.It is an organic computer that "instructs" the cells to repair Stark's damaged spinal cord and allows him to walk agin (issue 248). This is the armor featured in the Marvel Super-heroes "Quick Change Armor" Iron Man..He will then travel through time once more alongside the evil Doctor Doom (issues 249-250), but in the future this time, in a story that ties in with the one that occured in issues 149-150.In issue 248 an experimental bio chip is implanted in Tony's back..
Nicolas
Scapel, Stanford